Set up session recordings

A session recording is a replay of one real visit: you see the page, the mouse, the clicks, the scrolling and every page the visitor opened. Watching a handful of recordings often explains what a heatmap can't: why visitors hesitate, what they look for, and where they give up.

Change the recording settings

1. Go to Settings → Session recordings.
2. Under How many visits to record, choose Off, 10%, 25%, 50% or All visits.
3. Under Hide text in recordings, choose a level (see below).
4. Click Save recording settings.

You see "Saved. New visits use these settings within a minute." The new settings apply to the next visits. Visits that were not recorded can't be replayed later.

New sites record All visits with Balanced text hiding by default. Check these settings when you add a site, so they match what you have told your visitors in your privacy policy.

How many visits to record

Each visit is recorded completely or not at all. Varly decides at the start of the visit, so you never get half a visit.

• All visits is the best choice for most shops: you can always find the visit you are looking for.
• On a very busy site, 10% or 25% often gives you more recordings than you have time to watch.
• Off stops new recordings. The Recordings page then shows a note that new visits are not recorded, above the list. Existing recordings and favorites are not deleted: you can keep watching them for as long as they are kept.

The percentage only applies to visitors Varly measures anyway. Varly records nothing before the visitor accepts cookies in your cookie banner, and never records pages under Never track these pages, such as your checkout. See Cookie consent.

The recording script only loads for visits that are recorded, so other visits don't load anything extra.

Choose how much text to hide

Varly hides text in the visitor's browser, before anything is sent: hidden text never reaches Varly and shows as dots in the replay. Choose Strict (all text hidden), Balanced (recommended) (numbers and email addresses hidden) or Relaxed (only form fields hidden). Passwords, form fields and drop-down choices are always hidden, whatever you choose. The same level also applies to the texts of clicked elements in heatmaps and click impact.

With Always hide and Always show you can make exceptions for specific parts of the page, for example to keep prices readable with Balanced. Recording privacy: masking and hiding content explains each level, the exceptions and how to check your settings.

How long recordings are kept

Recordings are kept for 30 days. Recordings you add to your favorites are kept for 13 months. Adding a note also adds the recording to your favorites. If you remove a recording from your favorites, it goes back to the normal 30 days, so a recording older than that is then removed. See Watch session recordings.

Common problems

• The Recordings page says new visits are not recorded: How many visits to record is set to Off. Choose a percentage and save.
• No recordings appear: recordings depend on the same things as all other data: snippet, tracking on and consent. See Recordings are missing.
• There is no save button: you have read-only access. Ask an owner or editor.

For developers

The HTML attributes data-varly-mask, data-varly-unmask and data-varly-block are explained in Recording privacy.

Recording of a single page stops after an hour, or when the page produces a very large amount of recording data. Clicks, scrolling and other measurements keep going.